Settings

Open from the gear icon on the connection screen or bottom bar.

• Profile — nickname and picture.
• Servers and settings — export your saved servers and app settings to a .monkybackup file and restore them on another computer. You pick what goes in and what comes out each time, and the data can also ride along with the identity backup. The file is protected by the password you set when exporting: the saved server list may contain server passwords, so it never reaches the disk in the clear. Without that password the backup cannot be recovered.
• Devices — microphone, speaker/headphones and camera, with preview and list refresh.
• Camera effects — blur, color or image virtual backgrounds and physical-background chroma key, processed locally.
• Voice sensitivity (VAD) — adjust while watching the meter; leave the marker above the silent level.
• Noise suppression — choose RNNoise, Speex, GTCRN, WebRTC (built-in) or no noise processing.
• General and advanced outputs — use one device for everything or choose outputs for voice, screen shares and chat media.
• Quality and performance profile — affects only what you transmit.
• Behaviour — keep Monky in the system tray when the window is closed, and ask before shutting down a server hosted on this machine when you are the last person to leave it.
• Updates — current version and manual check.
• Community — shortcuts for ideas, voting and bugs.

Section navigation

In app and server settings, selecting a category expands its section shortcuts in the sidebar. Submenus expand and collapse smoothly, including when switching quickly between categories. Click one to scroll smoothly to that part of the page. The current section is also highlighted while scrolling manually, without recreating the form or losing unsaved changes. Hidden or unavailable sections are not included in the navigation.

Submenu expansion and collapse, as well as scrolling through settings sections and emoji-picker categories, respect the system's reduced-motion preference: when enabled, navigation is immediate, without animation.

Server settings: immediate application

Server settings have no final save step. Switches and selections apply immediately; names, passwords and limits apply when you finish editing, leave the field or press Enter. Done only closes the window and does not undo changes already applied.

While an operation is pending, Done, X, Esc, clicking outside the window and other dismissal paths are blocked. TURN installation reaching 100% does not mean it is finished: the application waits for the server's final acknowledgement and reports actual initialization failures.

Errors identify the unconfirmed change and allow correction and retry. If the connection or session changes, reopen settings to obtain the current state; a request without acknowledgement is not presented as saved. Role and bot-profile edits also apply immediately, while creation, installation, deletion and revocation still require their explicit actions.

Color picker

The physical chroma-key screen color, virtual background color and role colors share Monky's color picker. Click the color swatch to open hue, saturation and brightness controls, presets and a HEX field that accepts three or six digits.

Releasing a dragged control or choosing a preset applies the selection. After entering a valid HEX code, Enter, the close button or an outside click confirms it; closing the picker does not undo the chosen color. Invalid input is explained in the panel. Escape cancels only unfinished input and closes the picker without closing the surrounding settings.

The Eyedropper lets you choose a screen color. During sampling, Escape cancels only the eyedropper, retaining the previous color and keeping the panel open. Permission and capture failures are reported without replacing the color with a default. Sampling does not disable effects or transmit an unprocessed camera to the call.

Appear offline

Under My Profile → Visibility → Appear offline, the switch changes your presence on every connected server, including background connections. You move to the offline section of the member list and see Invisible, with a high-contrast hollow circular indicator in the bottom bar. Other members see your presence as offline; changing your nickname or picture does not make you appear online again.

This does not disconnect the client or interrupt an ongoing call. Your participation in a voice channel remains visible in that channel.

Quick audio controls

The microphone/headphone icons and their arrows share the same style in the bottom bar. The arrows open an upward panel showing the current device. Hover over that information or click it to open the side list of devices. Use the arrow keys to navigate; Esc closes the side list first, then the panel.

The microphone panel also shows Input level as a segmented bar. Selections use the same Voice and Video settings and are saved. The meter is a local preview: it does not unmute your microphone or transmit your voice. Closing the panel stops the preview. The Voice settings button opens the corresponding tab directly.

The green speaking border on your avatar and in the channel list only lights up during a call with an active, unmuted microphone, respecting PTT. Outside a call, only the local meters in open microphone settings keep working. These previews do not activate the call's speaking indicator, and pressing the PTT shortcut outside a call does not activate it either.

Right-clicking your own name also opens the user menu, both in the lists and on your bottom-bar profile. This menu lets you toggle manual microphone mute and deafen, including before joining a call. The voice-volume control only appears for other users; all other actions still respect server permissions. Manual mute never removes an administrator restriction.

Administrative microphone and audio restrictions apply to the identity on that server, including its other devices. Leaving and rejoining the call, switching servers, or restarting the app or server does not remove the restriction: an administrator must lift it.

Members with mute or deafen permissions can apply and remove these restrictions from the member list's right-click menu, even while the person is outside voice or disconnected. The menu fetches the current restriction before enabling the action. Kicking from voice and moving channels still require a voice connection.

On the controls, the icon and its color show your personal mute; an administrator restriction appears separately as a red prohibition badge, only while viewing the corresponding server, even without joining a voice channel. The server sends this restriction on connection, including after reopening the app. When switching servers, the badge and tooltip reflect only the restrictions of the server being viewed. The actual restrictions of a call on another server remain enforced. In participant lists, personal mute is gray and administrator restrictions remain red. The overlay continues to show the active call's participants.

Both client and server must be updated to exchange this information before joining voice.

Tooltips and menus

Client tooltips use a compact dark design, appear after approximately 150 ms with the mouse and immediately during keyboard navigation. Esc dismisses the tooltip. Menus and selection lists share the same theme; use the arrow keys, type to find an option and confirm with Enter. Esc closes a selection list without changing its value.

The bottom-bar controls and the composer's attachment, emoji and code buttons have their own hover motions: the gear rotates, the screen-sharing arrow moves, the soundboard releases musical notes and the emoji laughs. The camera effect is an animated viewfinder, not a recording indicator. Clicks and state changes also receive brief visual feedback. The floating message-action toolbar does not receive these animations. The reduced-motion preference disables these effects.

In the Code block dialog, drag the bottom-right corner to adjust its width and height; the editor follows the dialog size. Size limits preserve at least 24 px of space between the dialog and the application window edges.

This styling covers the client interface. File dialogs and system-tray menus are still drawn by the operating system.

Microphone test

Under Voice and Video, the test lets you start and stop local playback of your voice while watching the segmented bar. Use headphones to avoid feedback between your speakers and microphone. Playback only begins when you start the test; this preview is not sent to the voice channel and does not change your mute or Push-to-Talk state. If you are already unmuted in a call, that call continues transmitting your voice normally. Leaving the tab or closing settings stops the test.

Noise suppression engines

Under Voice and Video → Noise suppression, choose an engine and compare the result using Test microphone. The preview uses the same processing selected for calls without transmitting the test to other people.

Option	Use and limitations
RNNoise	Monky's default neural engine.
Speex	A lightweight classic filter suited to steady noise.
GTCRN	An alternative speech-focused neural network; it runs internally at 16 kHz, limiting music and high-frequency fidelity.
WebRTC (built-in)	Suppression integrated into the application's WebRTC audio processing.
Off	No noise suppression; echo cancellation and automatic gain control remain active.

All engines run locally and ship their assets with the application. Perceived strength depends on the microphone and environment; no engine is best in every situation. Built-in suppression is not stacked with RNNoise, Speex or GTCRN.

Switching preserves the outgoing call track and respects mute and PTT. The quick suppression button turns processing off or restores the last selected engine. Its adjacent arrow lets you choose an engine without leaving the current view or open its settings directly. Failures are reported instead of silently switching to unfiltered audio.

Audio outputs by category

Under Voice and Video → General output, choose the application's default device. This also applies to chat videos, including the expanded media viewer. The headphone arrow in quick controls changes this same general output.

The Advanced outputs switch reveals selectors for Voice channel, Screen share audio and Chat media. Use general output follows the main selection; System default explicitly selects the operating-system device even when the general output is different.

Alerts and soundboard playback still use the general output. Turning advanced mode off returns every category to general routing without deleting individual choices. Preferences are saved and also apply to amplified volumes above 100%. Device identifiers are not imported from another computer's backup.

If saved devices disconnect and prevent changes from applying, use Use system default for all outputs. This explicit action resets the general output, clears category choices and turns advanced mode off. It remains accessible while advanced selectors are collapsed, allowing recovery even when several devices disappear together.

Camera effects and preview

Under Voice and Video → Camera, preview is on by default when these controls open. Its visibility control sits above the effects: turning it off retains the preview rectangle with a Preview off message. This capture stays local and does not turn on camera transmission in the call. The visibility choice lasts for the current opening; reopening the controls enables preview again. If the call camera is already on, both share one capture; hiding or closing the preview does not stop it. Changing the device also updates the call, even with the preview closed.

In quick controls, the arrow beside the camera opens device selection, preview and effect controls, with a button that opens the corresponding settings section.

Mode	Result
Off	Video without a background effect.
Blur	Person segmentation with a blurred background.
Color	A solid virtual background, including green, without a physical green screen.
Image	A local image used as a virtual background.
Chroma key	Removes a color from the physical scene, usually a green screen, replacing it with a color or image.

Chroma key differs from a green virtual background: it removes the selected color throughout the image, including clothing and objects of that color. Call video does not carry transparency; the cutout receives the selected replacement background. Tolerance, edge and spill-reduction controls help with physical screens. White, black and gray are also valid key colors; brightness participates in matching these shades so that all grays are not treated as the same color. Automatic segmentation is approximate and can fail around hair, edges and difficult lighting; do not treat it as a guarantee that sensitive information in the background is hidden. Each adjustment has a ? button with an explanation: hover over it or focus it with the keyboard to read the help without changing the setting.

PNG, JPEG and WebP images up to 8 MiB are accepted, with additional dimension limits to prevent excessive resource use. The image is normalized and saved locally with the preferences, outside the general settings backup. With Limit to 720p / 30 FPS off by default, effects follow both the selected quality profile's resolution and FPS. Enable the switch to reduce processing, capping both at 1280 × 720 and 30 FPS. It never raises a lower resolution or frame rate, or upscales a smaller capture. Camera capabilities and processing capacity can also reduce the actual frame rate. Turning effects off preserves normal camera quality.

The model and processing ship with the application and need no external API: frames are processed locally before being sent through the P2P or SFU call. If processing fails, the camera stops and reports the error rather than silently reverting to unprocessed video. Turning the effect off requires an explicit choice.

Sound and server favorites

Use stars to mark sounds in the soundboard grid/list and under Settings → Soundboard, or servers in Home's Saved list. The All/Favorites filter combines with search without duplicating items. Favorites appear first in alphabetical order, followed by nonfavorites in alphabetical order. Starring or unstarring moves items with a smooth transition; switching All/Favorites also animates the list change. Animations respect the system's reduced-motion preference. Stars support Enter and space without playing a sound or opening a server.

Sound favorites identify the complete file path: matching names in different folders are distinct. Returning to a previous folder restores its stars. Server favorites follow address and port; renaming preserves the star and editing the address transfers it. Deleting a server removes its favorite.

These preferences stay local and do not travel in the general backup. Importing servers preserves stars for retained addresses and removes those for removed addresses. Sorting preserves each sound's assigned shortcuts and does not change the server rail.

Starting another server during a call

Starting and viewing an owned offline server from Home or the server rail does not join voice automatically or interrupt the current call, microphone, camera or screen shares. Joining a different voice channel remains a separate action.

If this application instance already hosts another server, it will not stop it implicitly. Use the hosting controls to stop it explicitly when safe before starting a different server.

Keyboard shortcuts

Under Keybinds, choose Record shortcut (or Change shortcut). Hold every key in the combination together, then release all keys to save. For example, Ctrl + Q + W + E contains three ordinary keys, not just modifiers and one key. Soundboard shortcuts use the same recorder. Esc cancels; closing the window or switching away also cancels recording.

Monky imposes no key-count limit, but keyboard rollover and operating-system restrictions still apply. Shortcuts are observed passively without reserving keys: Q remains available to the focused application. This does not bypass anti-cheat or security restrictions. Holding a chord does not repeat the action; release a required key before triggering it again. Extra modifiers prevent activation.

Shortcuts work while Monky is focused, minimized or in the background, including during calls with an active microphone. On Windows, shortcut capture runs in a separate process to avoid interference from WebRTC.

Mute microphone, deafen and mute soundboard also work outside a call. Your choice is saved and respected when joining a voice channel, so you can join already muted. Outside a call, these actions only change your local preferences without sending voice-state updates to the server. Camera, screen-sharing and stop-soundboard shortcuts only act while you are in a voice channel.

New shortcuts store physical key positions and display layout-specific labels, including º and ñ on Spanish keyboards where supported by the system. On Windows, conversion uses the focused window's actual layout, not a fixed US table. After switching input language/layout, release and press the chord again. If the system cannot distinguish two keys in a chord, that chord is not registered, preventing an incorrect action. Older shortcuts remain readable; re-record an unrecognized combination from another layout. Global capture may require input/accessibility permissions. Push-to-Talk keeps its separately configured keyboard key or mouse button.

Input mode and Push to Talk

Under Voice and Video → Input Mode, choose one of the two cards: Voice Activity (VAD) or Push to Talk. The cards also support keyboard activation, without radio buttons.

With PTT enabled, the microphone button in the bottom-left corner gains a borderless PTT label below the icon: yellow with a voice-input icon while waiting for the key and green with an open microphone while transmitting. Manual mute or deafen shows only a red crossed-out microphone, without the PTT label. An administrator restriction adds the red prohibition badge without replacing your personal icon or hiding the PTT label. The restriction prevents transmission even when your personal mute is off. Outside a call, the waiting state is gray.

Clicking the button still toggles manual mute. Holding the PTT key does not undo that mute: it only opens the microphone when allowed. The state follows the actual microphone gate, including the release delay after letting go of the key. The configured key and state description appear in the tooltip and settings; there is no longer a separate indicator on the call stage.

Quality profiles

Profile	Audio	Camera	Screen	When to use
Economy	24 kbps	360p	480p	Slow or unstable internet
Normal	32 kbps	480p	720p	General use
High Quality	48 kbps	720p	1080p	Fast internet and a PC to spare
Gaming	28 kbps	reduced	smooth (60 FPS)	Gaming: prioritises voice and fluid screen

The Custom profile offers dropdowns with the most common values — aspect ratio (16:9, 16:10, 4:3 and 21:9), resolution (from the lowest up to 4K), FPS and bitrate. Every dropdown keeps a Custom... entry that reveals the plain number box for anything outside the list. Changing the aspect ratio keeps the resolution closest to the one you were already using.

Sharing your screen while gaming

Encoding video is expensive, and the codec decides whether that cost lands on the CPU or the GPU. AV1 and VP9 compress better, but almost no PC has a hardware encoder for them — at 1080p60 the work falls entirely on the CPU and the game loses frames. H.264 is hardware accelerated on practically every graphics card (NVENC, QuickSync, AMF).

That is why, on the Gaming profile, the Automatic codec puts H.264 first. If you use another profile and the game stutters while sharing, pick H.264 / AVC under Preferred Video Codec.

Automatic can negotiate another compatible codec. An explicit choice is required for your screen in both P2P and SFU, including when replacing a screen or switching voice modes. If it cannot be used, the client explains why rather than sending your screen with a different codec.

On Windows, Monky also captures the screen through the Windows Graphics Capture API, which composites on the GPU and stops delivering frames when nothing on screen changes. It needs Windows 10 1809 or newer and does not work inside Remote Desktop sessions — in those cases Monky falls back to the old method on its own. To force the old method, start the app with MONKY_DISABLE_WGC=1.

One last tip that holds for any capture software: sharing the game window usually costs less than sharing the whole monitor, and playing in borderless fullscreen avoids the mode switches that make a game hitch.